The Boston Bruins signed forward Chuck Kobasew to a multiyear contract extension on Tuesday after his highest scoring season in five years in the NHL.

The team did not disclose contract details.

Kobasew had career highs of 22 goals, 17 assists and 39 points in 73 games this past season. He finished second on the team in goals to Marco Sturm , who had 27.

Kobasew missed the playoffs with a fractured left leg. The Bruins were eliminated in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens in seven games. He was drafted with the 14th overall pick in 2001 by Calgary, which traded him to Boston on Feb. 10, 2007.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

It may be over in Boston but there is still plenty of reasons to watch the remainder of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The great match-ups that will translate into great hockey. Every game will be exciting and Bruins fans still have some connections to each series. Best of all you don’t have to listen to Jack Edwards make the call. So here are the second round match-ups.

(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (6) Colorado Avalanche

This heated rivalry is renewed. Reliving the battles of the late 90’s and 2000’s, this will be a sight to see. The Avs brought back some of their key contributors to the rivalry in Adam Foote and Peter Forsberg, while things welcomed Darren McCarty back to Motown.  Lots of old faces back in the mix but don’t expected the same blood bath that your custom to seeing between these two in the playoffs. Detroit is a great puck possession team loaded with skill. While the Avs do have some agitators, the series will be less physical and more strategic than a normal AvsWings match-up. The Red Wings come in with a highly skilled and deep team, while the Avalanche do have many big names on their team, Detroit’s depth will be hard to handle.

Bruins captain has been named one of three finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defensman. The other two are Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames and Nicklas Lindstrom of the Detroit Red Wings.

Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins

Stats- goals (17), assists (34) and points (51), plus-minus (+14)

Big Z has been everything the Bruins paid for this season. He has had his best statistical year as a pro. Ranked third among NHL players in average ice time per game (26:50) He led the Bruins and ranked eighth in the League with 223 hits . A major asset to Boston’s amazing turn around.

Prediction- Its hard to go against the season the Chara has had. Its been a great turn around from a season ago. Unfortunately, Lindstrom has been a bit better. Chara will receive a major look, due to the fact that Lindstrom has won the award and Boston’s brief success in the playoffs. I see a second place finish.

Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings

Stats- goals (10), assists (60) and points (70), plus-minus (+40)

The Boston Bruins fell in game seven to the Montreal Canadiens 5-0. Most will see this as an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the rival Habs. That, the Bruins once again let fans down in game seven. The casual fan will now look to the Celtics to roll through the playoffs, the Red Sox to continue to out slug everyone, and the Patriots to get even better with the seventh pick in the draft. The B’s had their shot in the lime light and came up empty. Its unfortunate that it turns out this way but when you’re competing with the best team in the respective league, its a reality.

For an instant the Bruins were the toast of the town. They were headlining sport talk shows. There was chatter all over New England when they forced a game seven. There was more hype surrounding the Bruins than there had been in quite some time. A team that was down and out  was about to pull off a Red Sox sized comeback.  It was a young likable team with a ticker the size of the ice they played on. An irrelevant team was relevant again. It was fun to be a Bruins’ fan for the moment. The streets outside the the Garden were filled with black and gold. The Garden itself was electric. City bars were at capacity with puck heads. But like all good things it came to an end.

The Bruins skated past the Canadiens with a 5-1 victory in Montreal last night. The win saves the B’s season and brings this relentless bunch back to Boston to try and tie the best-of-seven series at three games apiece. Boston, who had only score a total of five goals in the previous four games, lit the lamp up for five in Thursday’s playoff battle.

A major component to the Bruins success was the return of Phil Kessel, who scored the Bruins’ first goal and tied the game at one. Kessel had been a healthy scratch for the last three games of this series. Call it being unfairly singled out for the lack-luster play of the Bruins in game one. But it was a coaches decision for the benching. It seemed that Claude Julien wanted to get a tougher bunch against the Habs. It wasn’t only Kessel that seemed outmatched in that opening game. The entire Bruins team looked terrible. However, with hardly any playoff experience the B’s sub-par play was somewhat expected. I liked the move of changing things up and getting Vladimir Sobotka in the line up but Julien took out the wrong guy in my opinion. Sobotka deserves to play, but not at the expense of Kessel. Julien should have sat out Jeremy Riech or Shawn Thornton in those three games. Both guys are exactly the same type of players. If these two are playing a lot, your team is not scoring. The two players are grinders at best. You need offense and whether it shows up on the score sheet or not, Kessel’s speed and creatability opens the ice for Boston’s offence, especially with no red line.

Although Montreal has the commanding lead, Boston deserves its due, especially amongst the locals. There is no way in hell that anyone watching at home should hear the Montreal “BOOs” when Zdeno Chara touches the puck in the Garden. And there definitely shouldn’t be any Oh-laay Oh-lay Oh-lay Oh-laay ringing throughout the hub. Kudos to the B’s fans who went out to support the team and did their best to drown out the red shirts.

I understand that Habs fans travel well and hockey is all they got up there but are we that spoiled in Boston where we can’t come out and support hockey’s most surprising team, who happens to be in the playoffs. Yes their run into the playoffs was next to impossible, and beating the Canadiens seemed impossible. Even still, this over achieving bunch of no names deserved our home support and we couldn’t deliver. To have that many Habs fans in our home arena was embarrassing. You wouldn’t have a sea of pinstripes at Fenway or a J-E-T-S chant at Gillette, so why would you let it happen to the B’s.

For the first time in four years the Stanley Cup playoffs come back to Boston. Being picked by many to finish dead last in the NHL, Boston was supposed to be the door mat of the league. Now they are in the playoffs. That alone makes the B’s relevant in Boston again, never mind that they face off against their hated rivals, the Canadiens. What is better than a Boston vs. Montreal playoff battle? The B’s head into the series as the heavy underdogs. What else is new?They have been the underdogs all season long. B’s Habs, wouldn’t want it any other way.

2007-2008 Regular season match up

The Habs owned the season series, sweeping Boston in all eight games. To go back further, Montreal has won 11 straight against the B’s. The last time Boston beat the Canadiens was on March 3, 2007 in a 3-1 home victory.

2007-2008 Winner Scores

Canadiens 6-1
Canadiens 2-1
Canadiens 7-4
Canadiens 4-2
Canadiens 5-2
Canadiens 8-2
Canadiens 4-2
Canadiens 3-2

According the NHL, the Jack Adams Award is an annual award presented by the National Hockey League Broadcasters’ Association to the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.

Listening to the supposed national expert’s picks for coach of the year makes me sick. You wouldn’t know that Claude Julien has the Bruins, who many picked to finish nowhere near a playoff spot, sitting in 7th place. Instead, Versus and ESPN has  coaches such as Mike Babcock, Bruce Boudreau, Guy Carbonneau, and Ron Wilson picked to be leading candidates for the award. There wasn’t even a mention of Bruin’s coach Claude Julien. That reason, I have no idea.

Now I’m not just being a homer and believe that Claude Julien is the Bill Belichick of hockey, because i don’t. As a matter of fact I wanted to see Mike Milbury behind the bench when the Bruins were searching for a head coach after the Dave Lewis debacle.  So why am I lobbying for Julien as Coach of the Year, because no coach has done more with what he’s been dealt this year. No other coach has gotten more from their team than the Bruin’s coach.

Bruins snagged three out of a possiblefour points this past weekend against division rivals. The B’s had an impressive 4-0 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and manage to gain a point in an overtime 2-1 loss against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.

Currently Boston is tie win the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. However, due to the tie breakers, Boston remains in that seventh position, with the Rangers being the sixth and having a game in hand. All three teams are three points ahead of Washington, who remains on the outside looking in.

David Krejci continued his stellar play in both contests. The Bruin’s young forward tallied a goal and two assist Saturday against the Sens and added the B’s lone goal against the Sabres on Sunday, which happened to be a short handed goal. Before Sunday’s loss, Krejci has had three consecutive multi-point game. Krejci has been the Bruins’ primary source of offense in the absence of Marc Savard. He has three goals and five assists over that span of four games.

After another win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and officially eliminating the Leafs from the playoffs, the Bruins now sit in the seventh in the Coference with five games left to play.

In the absents of Marc Savard (broken bone in back) and Chuck Kobasew(broken leg), the B’s have managed to score four or more goals in Bruins wins. David Krejci has taken the role of Savard on the powerplay, and has looked great doing it. You have to apprieciate the play of Bruin’s rookie center. He has tallied four points in his last two game and was the best player on the ice in last night’s game. 

Krejci made a perfect pass to set up Marco Sturm for the first goal of the game. Toronto tied it up on a Jiri Tlusty goal in the second. Then three third period goals by the Bruin’s Phil Kessel, Glen Murray, and Peter Schaefer sealed the fate of the game and ultimately, Toronto’s season. Tim Thomas made 30 stops in the win.

Weird stat of the night: The teams played 11:53 without a stoppage in the first period.

The Maple Leafs became the fourth team in the Eastern Conference eliminated from the playoffs. The others: New York Islanders, Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning.